The Explorer of the Universe
32

The Going Merry continued to sail down the mountain very quickly and re-entered the clouds.

"Wuah, it's really amazing!" Sanji.

As he got closer to the base of the mountain, there was a roar that made Tanaka startled.

"Boooooooo~"

"Could it be the whale? Name ... What's-her-name? I forgot!" Tanaka Mumbles.

"Did you hear anything?" Zoro asked who heard the whaling.

"What did you say?" Ask Nami.

"Did you hear a strange sound?" Zoro.

"Isn't that the sound of the wind? There must be a lot of strange places!" Answer Nami.

"What's that?" Said Usopp who saw there was a big shadow in front of them.

"Nami, up ahead there is the mountain!" Sanji.

"Mount?! There shouldn't be!" Nami said while looking at the map.

"It's not a mountain, it's a whale!" Tanaka.

"Pope! There can't be a whale that big?" Denying Usopp.

"Booooo~" roared the whale.

"Listen, it's really the whale's voice! Is there a cliff or mountain that can roar?" Tanaka.

When it came out of the clouds, a large whale in a vertical facing position was in front of the Going Merry ship, blocking the exit from the reverse mountain.

"Ba-Ba-Ba-How is this?!" Usopp said trembling.

"We fight?! Luffy's.

"Stupid! How can we fight him?!" Deny Nami.

"Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta-But, our path is blocked! How's it?!" Ask Usopp who is still shaking.

"Wait a minute! If he looks like a wall, then where are his eyes?!" Ask Sanji.

"yes too! It's possible that he didn't realize the whereabouts of our ship!" Nami.

"But if we don't do something, we're still gonna hit him!" Said Zoro, who then saw a gap. "Hey, we can go through his left! By the side, at full speed!"

"But the wheel is broken!" Said Usopp who immediately headed to the helm of the ship.

"Do something!" Sanji.

"I'll help you!" Said Zoro who came to the helm of the ship.

"ah! I have an idea!" Said Luffy who immediately ran towards the front of the cannon cabin.

"Luffy what do you want?" Ask Nami.

Meanwhile, Zoro, Usopp and Sanji try to change the course of the ship with the steering of a broken ship.

Tanaka just sighed and then wanted to use force power to slow down before Luffy fired the cannon in order to do the same.

But Tanaka was five minutes late because the sound of the cannon had sounded.

"Who fired the cannon!?" Shouted Empa people at the same time.

"Hahaha, have you stopped?" Luffy said proudly.

Tanaka sighed as she was five minutes late from Luffy. He did not want to hurt the pope.

Although Luffy fired the cannon, but that did not stop the ship because the ocean currents that still carried them were still moving but the speed had been reduced.

The Going Merry still hit the whale with only damage to the sheep's head from which Luffy's favorite was broken.

"My favorite place!" Said Luffy who was surprised when he saw the head of the sheep falling on the floor of the ship.

Meanwhile Sanji, Usopp, and Zoro try to move the ship to escape using the oar.

But Luffy, angry that his favorite spot was destroyed, got out of the cannon cabin.

"What are you doing on my favorite seat?!" Luffy said angrily and then hit Laboon in the eye.

"Stupid!!" Said all of them, except for Tanaka could only sigh.

The pope did not feel anything when he was struck by Luffy. But with the action of Luffy made the Whale Eye look towards the ship Going Merry.

"How's?! Damn it, come forward!" Challenge Luffy.

"Shut up, shut up!" Usopp and Zoro kick Luffy.

The pope roared again and opened his mouth

The Going Merry was carried into his mouth.

Tanaka looks at Luffy who fell from the ship.

"Luffy!!" Call them all in panic.

Tanaka did not have time to use his force because the situation was so chaotic and fast. He just extended his hand.

"Hold my hand!" Pinta Tanaka while extending her hand.

However, because of the loss of footing due to the shock of the ship carried by the inflow into the whale, Tanaka was actually attracted by Luffy.

Not staying still, the rubber man then used the whale's teeth to climb onto it along with Tanaka.

"I'm not gonna die here!" Said Luffy who tried to stay on top of him with his face down, stretching his legs and hands so as not to fall.

Tanaka did the same thing as Luffy.

After a while the whale closed its mouth, Luffy and Tanaka felt very exhausted.

"Tanaka, are you okay?" Ask Luffy.

Tanaka nodded her head in response and Luffy felt relieved.

"How is this?! They've all been eaten!" Luffy said and then hit the whale. "Hey, you, give it back, give my friends back! Spit up! I said return! Damn you!"

The whale started to move to dive. While Luffy was angry at the whale, Tanaka looked around, looking around for the entrance to the whale's body.

He found the steel door.

"Luffy, come here quickly!" Tanaka made Luffy look at her. "There's an entrance."

Tanaka quickly opened the steel door by turning the lever so that the door was finally opened.

The two of them went straight in with Luffy first entering which was then followed by Tanaka who again closed the steel door just as the whale was about to submerge his entire body.

The first thing they saw when they entered was a very long steel passage both left and right.

"What is this place?! Why are there doors and passageways inside the whale?" Ask Luffy.

"It's not a natural creation of the whale itself, but it looks like someone made it." Tanaka.

The two of them decided to walk down the hallway, they took a right direction.

After walking for a few minutes, Luffy stopped suddenly making Tanaka who was walking behind him also stop.

"Tanaka, are they gonna be okay?" Asked Luffy who was worrying about his crew while lowering his head.

Tanaka just saw Luffy who was not as excited as usual.

"Calm down, they'll be fine! Our adventure on the Grand Line has just begun, there's no way they'll just die." Said Tanaka who gave motivation to Luffy.

"By the way Zoro and Sanji are, they're both very strong." Tanaka Assert.

Luffy raised his head and looked at Tanaka who then smiled smirkingly.

"You're right, they must be fine because our adventure is just beginning." Said Luffy who returned the spirit.

Luffy walked back up cheerfully as usual and Tanaka followed behind him. He felt like he was walking with his five-year-old son to buy ice cream when he saw Luffy's behavior.

Suddenly there was a fairly powerful vibration that made the hallway tremble like a 9.5 magnitude earthquake.

"What is this?! I can't keep my feet from turning, Dizziness!" Said Luffy who was thrown in various directions while heading forward.

Tanaka immediately chased after her by holding onto the wall as a restraint to keep her from falling, albeit in an extremely violent shock.

Luffy then fell into a large place, while Tanaka went down to that place with a steel ladder attached to the steel wall.

"What is this place?! The sea? The river?" Said Luffy looking at the steel trench.

"It's totally man-made! There can't be a whale in her body like this" Tanaka said.

The two of them moved back, but because the vibration made them run and could not stop.

"Waaa~ help me! I can't stop!" Luffy yelled while Tanaka just silently followed Luffy behind him.

At that moment there was a large and small gate. Right at the small gate that was part of the large gate, there were two people dressed strangely.

But because Luffy could not stop running because the shock of the whale that crashed into the red line wall made Luffy hit him who was standing in front of the steel door.

The three of them collided with each other until it made the small gate open and finally floated in the air before falling into the acid sea.

"Huh, Luffy?" Call Zoro.

"Yes! Everything's fine, huh? Most importantly, help me!" Luffy said before falling into the acid sea.

Tanaka who manages to hold himself back from falling into the acid sea must make him fall to help Luffy and the two strangers who were hit by Luffy.

When Tanaka manages to catch the drowning Luffy and bring him to the surface, Zoro turns out to gush into the acid sea and help Tanaka take Luffy.

As the three of them had already returned to the Going Merry, Tanaka noticed two strangers had been there after swimming towards the ship to save themselves from the acid sea.

Before interrogating the two strangers, Tanaka performed CPR on Luffy, who had swallowed a lot of water.

"Byurrr."

Luffy's mouth let out water like a fountain and it made Tanaka feel relieved.

After saving Luffy from it, Tanaka and the others begin interrogating the two strangers.

Tanaka finds out the two of them, the female is miss Wednesday and the male wearing the crown prince on his head is Mr 9.

They were both members of the crocodile-led criminal organization Baroque Works.

In addition, Miss Wednesday also has another secret, the only princess of Arabasta kingdom, Vivi Nafertari.

"It's quiet." Said Nami who realized the whale had calmed down. "The body is calm now."

"It looks like it, all right. We saved you, but who are you?" Ask Zoro.

"Mr. 9, they're pirates!" Said Vivi whispering to Mr. 9.

"I-I know, Miss Wednesday. B-But we can talk to them, maybe they can understand." Said Mr. 9 who also whispered.

"Are they not aware that we can still hear their talk?' Thought the sweatdrop Tanaka.

The conscious Luffy got up and sat behind Vivi and Mr 9. The two of them were completely surrounded by a crew of straw hat pirates.

"You guys still here, killer?" Shouted a man with a head like a flower.

His shout made all of them on the Going Merry ship move their heads up to stare at the flower-headed man.

"Don't make me repeat it! As long as I'm alive, I won't let you touch Laboon!" He shouted furiously.

"He's back." Usopp.

"Who's that uncle?" Ask Luffy.

"Crocus, the man who lives in the whale who swallowed us." Answer Usopp.

Suddenly Vivi and Mr 9 stood up.

"While you say that, we're not leaving." Said Vivi while holding up a weapon that looked like a bazooka.

"This princess is really very bad at acting like a villain!" Think Tanaka.

"Dropping this whale is our mission." Said Mr. 9 who also took up arms like Vivi. "Let us stop us from bringing this whale down! We'll make a hole in his stomach! Let's do it, baby!"

"Understand!" Vivi.

They immediately fired a small cannon to injure Laboon but Tanaka immediately stopped the small cannonball and dropped it into the acid sea.

Crocus who had run and jumped to block the small cannonball just fell into the acid sea without getting any injuries at all.

"What?" Asked Vivi who was surprised and confused.

"What's going on? Why did our cannonball just fall in an acid ocean?" Ask Mr 9.

In addition to the two of them, Crocus also felt very confused as he returned to the surface of Laboon's sea of stomach acid.

"Let's shoot one more time, Miss Wednesday." Said Mr 9.

"Yes, Come on, Mr 9." Answer Vivi.

Tanaka only sighed at the two comedians.

Without needing Tanaka to stop the actions of the two of them, Luffy had already done so first by hitting Vivi and Mr 9 in the head from behind very hard, making them both faint.

"Luffy...?" Asked Usopp who was surprised by Luffy.b's actions

"Why, I want to hit them!" Luffy's.

"Good job captain!" Praise Tanaka for tying Vivi and Mr 9 with a rope.

He was assisted by Usopp.

After tying them both together, the Going Merry docked at Crocus' artificial island after previously raising Crocus to the ship.

"Thank you for saving me, but why?" Ask Crocus.

"I didn't mean to save you. It's just, somehow I don't like them." Luffy replied innocently

"Hey, who are they? What are you doing in the belly of this whale?" Ask Nami.

"They're delinquents from a town nearby. They're after this whale meat. If they catch Laboon, the meat can be eaten by the inhabitants for 2-3 years, so..." Crocus.

"Laboon?" Ask Nami.

"This pope's name. He is a whale that comes from the West Blue and of all the whale species that exist in this world, Laboon is the largest whale." Answer Crocus.

"I'm not letting them make it food." Rigorously.

"The shocks were made by this pope right, what did he do?" Ask Sanji.

Crocus sighed for a moment and then explained, "He crashed himself into the wall of the Red Line."

"There's a reason why he smashed his head against the Red Line wall and roared in Reverse Mountain." Crocus.

"Reason?" Nami.

"Does he want to go back to his native place, west Blue and want to meet someone he knows there?" Ask Tanaka

Crocus nodded his head. "Yes, Laboon is a human-hearted whale and is waiting for a group of pirates who came 50 years ago." Answer Crocus.

Crocus also tells the story of Laboon and the pirates he was waiting for.

Tanaka just sat quietly while looking at the sky painted by Crocus.

"How long did he paint and make all this?" Think Tanaka.

While Tanaka was thinking about it, Crocus had already finished telling the story of Laboon and the pirate musician.

"It's been 50 years since then." Crocus ended his story.

"Laboon's been waiting for them for 50 years?!" Said Usopp in shock.

"So that's why he keeps roaring at the wall and crashing himself?" Ask Nami.

"Yes." Yeah." Crocus.